Author(s): David De Witt

Artists & Styles

Based on new research, Rembrandt's Naked Truth features seventeenth-century nude studies that have never before been brought together in such large numbers in The Rembrandt House Museum in The Hague. It will be the first time that Rembrandt's frank approach to drawing nudes will be examined in depth and brought to the notice of a wide audience. In the seventeenth century Rembrandt and his pupils followed the new trend of drawing from models, but Rembrandt's approach differed from his contemporaries'. His uncompromising realism was criticised - he presented reality and so did not conform to the accepted ideal of beauty at that time. When Rembrandt and his pupils drew nude models they talked about art, beauty and transience - subjects that were as sensitive in those days as they are now.